te a characteristic gesture, screened
their eyes with their elbows to protect them from the dust and wind the
train produced. I was astonished to notice how many fair-haired children
one saw--curious indeed in a population of Latin races and negroes. That
golden hair, however, seemed gradually to grow darker, and became almost
black in the older people.

Hideous barbed-wire fences gave a certain air of civilization to those
parts, but the landscape was nevertheless getting desolate as we
proceeded farther north. Except in the immediate vicinity of habitations,
one felt the absolute lack of animal life. Only rarely did we see a black
bird of extraordinary elongated form dash frightened across the railway
line, much too fast for me to identify to which family it belonged.

One could not help being impressed by the immensity of the landscape,
endless sweeping undulation after undulation spreading before us, but not
a real mountain in sight. It was like a solid ocean of magnified
proportions. Just above the horizon-line a large accumulation of globular
clouds of immaculate white intensified the interesting colour-scheme of
greens and yellows on the earth's surface to its full value by contrast.

The large proportion of cultivated land which had impressed me so much in
the vicinity of Riberao Preto gradually diminished; and at sunset, by the
time we had reached Batataes, only 48 kil. farther on,
hardly any more coffee plantations were visible. Only fields of short
grass spread before us on all sides. An occasional bunch of trees hiding
a humble farmhouse could be perceived here and there, but no other sign
of life upon the immense, silent, green undulations of symmetric curves,
not unlike enormous waves of the sea.

Farther north upon the Mogyana line, land seemed to diminish in price
considerably. Its quality was not so good, especially for coffee
plantations. At Batataes, for instance, 548 kil. by rail from the coast,
prices were cheaper. Good land for cultivation could be obtained at 200
milreis, and campos at 25 milreis an alqueire.

Such low prices were general north of Riberao Preto, although naturally
they were likely to increase as the country got slowly opened up with new
roads and railroads. Away from the railway the price of land was much
lower.

One thing that particularly struck the traveller straying in those parts
was the poverty of all the minor towns and villages. The industrial
development of the larg